Thanks To Closing, I-75 Won't Be Fast Or Furious

A six-mile stretch of Interstate 75 through the four-level interchange at I-595 and the Sawgrass Expressway will be closed for three hours Tuesday morning for film crews shooting a movie.

The Fast and the Furious 2 has been shooting chase scenes throughout South Florida in the past month, closing stretches of Florida's Turnpike near Homestead and the Gratigny Parkway in northwest Miami-Dade County.

Tuesday's closure of I-75 is only a test to see how drivers handle the detours.

The closure will last from 9 a.m. to noon.

Drivers headed north or south through the I-75/Sawgrass/I-595 junction, or going from northbound I-75 to eastbound I-595, won't have a problem.

However, drivers headed west to Naples on Alligator Alley or coming east on the Alley toward Fort Lauderdale will face a big detour around the four-level interchange.

The real filming won't take place until early December and will close the same stretch of I-75 for at least eight days.

The section of I-75 west of I-595 was picked because of its relatively low traffic counts compared with other roads in South Florida. I-75 carries about 38,000 vehicles a day just west of the four-level interchange, compared with the 132,000 vehicles a day that move on I-595 less than a mile away.

"The Fast and the Furious 2," a sequel to the 2001 box office hit about the world of street racing, is scheduled to be released in June.

The film's crew says they don't want a repeat of what happened in August when filming of Bad Boys 2 shut down the MacArthur Causeway between Miami and Miami Beach for several days and created huge traffic jams.

"We were mindful of what happened. We approached this from the other end of the spectrum," said location manager Sam Tedesco.

Universal Studios has hired about 70 police officers from four different departments to help shepherd motorists through the detour. Portable message boards and signs will be placed along the detour routes.

Movie lovers hoping for a glimpse of the action will be disappointed. No sightseers will be allowed.

Michael Turnbell can be reached at mturnbell@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4155.